Art, craft, projects and life with Gillian Cooper...
Artist, Tutor, Writer and Mother

Monday, 6 October 2014

Out & About: Greek figures at the British Museum

Greek section of the British Museum

My weekend in
London at the start of August seems a long time ago now, especially with the
autumnal gales and rain we are experiencing today. However, my trip there is still having an
impact on my work. I spent ages
considering what I should do on my second day: should I find some contemporary work to enjoy;
have a trip to the V&A; or go to the Greek section of the British Museum. In the end, the British Museum
won, partly because it was just round the corner from where I was staying and partly because it felt relevant to my work.

Cycladic figure at the British Museum

I ended up passing
my full day there. I photographed, drew,
tagged onto a tour (which was fascinating) and eventually spent some time in
the bookshop. At one point I was
clutching over £200-worth of books, but I decided I had to be a bit more
sensible and maybe read one at a time, rather than just buy lots that would
join the ever growing still-to-be-read pile besides my bed. The book that made the cut was ‘The AegeanWorld’ by the Ashmolean in Oxford and I have referred to it several times
already. The slightly less sensible
purchase was three rubber ducks for the kids.
But they were cute and look good on our bathroom window ledge.

Latest drawing in tinted charcoal pencils

With well over 100
photos, I chose to edit them and get some printed so I could work from them. However, when they came back from the photo
service, they were all cropped in strange ways as they were not standard sizes
after I had played with them. I thought
they would have been shrunk to size but no – so beware if you do the same. Still I have been drawing lots of images, working
away at copying, but also thinking about how these will translate into my work
and my goddess figures.